aroramage |
Sometimes it's the simplest of
cards that make our list, due in part to their
simplicity and how effective their text is. Nest Ball is
just such a card, so it shouldn't be a surprise that
it's tied with our previous two picks.
The only thing Nest Ball does is
grab a Basic Pokemon from the deck and places it on the
Bench. Immediately combining this with Pokemon-EX is
going to be one major use for this card, and any
Basic-centric strategy is going to be running 4 copies -
I'm looking at you, Volcanion. So what a surprise, it
makes our list! But what about when those Pokemon-EX
gradually rotate out? If it's anything to go by, chances
are strong within the next couple of years, we're going
to see a gradual decline in EX in Standard (Expanded
will still have them all to itself).
Well that's where the GX come in.
There's a wide variety of them around and about -
Primarina-GX and Espeon-GX merely represent the Stage 2
and Stage 1 variations that come up. Yes, we even have
Basic GX Pokemon to take a look at, which means Nest
Ball can snag a copy of them and put them right onto the
Bench! It speeds up the strategies and decks of anything
it's in, making Nest Ball a big necessity in most decks.
...MOST decks.
Some decks that probably won't want
to or need to run Nest Ball are ones like Greninja BREAK
that can amass a quick field of evolution potentials -
Frogadier can instantly summon out every other copy of
himself throughout the deck, and once a Greninja's down,
they're practically set-up. There's also the possibility
that people avoid Nest Ball in their decks because they
don't want to put down an evolving Basic which their
opponent can snipe or Lysandre out for an easy KO, which
would be very inconvenient.
Nest Ball's another variation on
the "Poke Ball" series, and it will probably end up in a
load of decks to come.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (a great search
option to make evolving easier)
Expanded: 4/5 (...with some mild
risks)
Limited: 4/5 (but always a great
card to have!)
Arora Notealus: Nest Ball's gonna
be more impactful in a Basic-centric format, which I
expect this to last for a good long while. Once
Pokemon-EX have had their time in the sun, Nest Ball may
see some decline in usage, or it'll end up being used
instead on Pokemon-GX or to aid in those Evolution
strategies. As long as Basics are relevant, so too is
Nest Ball.
Next Time: HUT HUT HIKE!!
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Otaku |
At last, it is time to countdown the top 10 cards of
Sun & Moon, as determined by the aggregate efforts
of aroramage, Zach, and myself! As usual, each
reviewer submitted his own personal top 10 list, and the
results were averaged out to produce the list we are
actually using. Reprints were not permitted
for the list; we already know a card like Ultra Ball
is good (and actually pretty hard to top)!
Eighth place goes to Nest Ball (Sun & Moon
123/149; 158/149). Trainers may not make the world
go round, but usually, they make decks flow. There
haven’t been any effective general Trainer counters in
years, which I consider a very good thing as it is
usually quite frustrating when there it. There are
a few pieces of general Trainer support, like Skyla
and Trainers’ Mail, so that’s a good thing.
As an Item, the only cost to play Nest Ball is
having Nest Ball in hand; this is why it is
important that Items not be especially strong because
they are the easiest cards to spam in the TCG. The
only drawback to using Items is external; Item lock is a
potent strategy, and there are multiple cards that can
inflict it upon both players or even just against one’s
opponent. With that out of the way, Nest Ball
has a simple effect; search your deck for a Basic
Pokémon and Bench it, directly from your deck. No
flips. No discard costs. Restricted only to
the most important Stage in the game: even decks focused
on Evolutions start with the appropriate Basic Pokémon.
By never landing in your hand, the Basic can avoid
certain effects, which can be good but mostly keeps this
from being used to fetch Shaymin-EX (XY:
Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108) and still activate
its “Set Up” Ability.
So should you use Nest Ball? Not in every
deck, but in many. This provides an alternative
search to Ultra Ball. Again, even decks
that focus on Evolutions will (usually) need to begin
with the Basic from which those cards Evolve. Ultra
Ball is still king (I use it as an example in the
top 10 introductory blurb for a reason), but for as
useful as the discard cost can be for setting up plays
like thinning your hand while simultaneously snagging
Shaymin-EX in order to draw with Set Up, there are
times when you just cannot afford the discard cost.
While not for every deck, it is far from uncommon to see
a deck running three Ultra Ball and then two of a
less costly, more restrictive search option. Basic
swarm decks, in particular, benefit from Nest Ball.
We’ll actually be covering one such card tomorrow, so I
won’t get into specifics. This card has both
general deck usage potential in Expanded and Standard
play as well as a prominent place in more specialized
decks and is amazing in Limited mostly because any
search is welcome there. My experience with this
card mostly comes from other people using it, as
well as Theme Deck battles on the PTCGO. If it is
so good, then why haven’t I used it? It doesn’t
fit the decks I’m currently running. In Theme Deck
mode, it is as great as it is in Limited.
Ratings
Standard:
3.75/5
Expanded:
3.5/5
Limited:
4/5
Theme:
4/5
Summary:
Nest Ball is a new search Item that plays the
Basic Pokémon you choose from your deck directly to your
Bench. I probably could have just written that
before giving the ratings as my entire review, and if we
didn’t have Ultra Ball and/or Shaymin-EX
wasn’t such an integral part of so many decks, I’d have
scored it at least a quarter point higher.
I had Nest Ball as my ninth place pick, but I
don’t object to it clocking in one place higher.
Collectively, it garnered nine voting points, tying with
our 9th and 10th place finishers, but winning the tie
because it appeared on all three personal top 10 lists.
Just one less voting point, and we’d have had a tie for
10th and 11th place for Nest Ball to try and win.
For the sake of reference, we are still in the middle of
some tightly packed picks. One more voting point
would have moved the three-way tie from between 8th,
9th, and 10th place and instead been between 6th, 7th,
and 8th.
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